


James Potter was Glue

by alrightevanns



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Head Boy James Potter, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Mentioned Peter Pettigrew, One Shot, POV Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & James Potter Friendship, Short One Shot, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, jily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:16:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28963032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alrightevanns/pseuds/alrightevanns
Summary: In which Lily Evans has a startling realization about James Potter, newly appointed Head Boy.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, James/Lily
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	James Potter was Glue

**Author's Note:**

> Just a one-shot of how I think James was, and how Lily finally saw him.

Lily Evans knew a lot of things. It was a decided fact almost, that she knew something about almost everything.

She knew the reason that she was good at potions was because she went home every summer and studied chemistry and that even if the wizarding world thought muggleborns were unintelligent, they were far more advanced than given credit for.

She knew that every summer when she went home, Petunia would find as many ways as possible to get away from her because deep, deep inside her, she missed Lily. She said she hated her, but Lily believed hatred was not something found between sisters, not something that would cause this much pain.

She knew that pain was something she was all too familiar with, given her history with Snape. And yet, she could not hate him either. She was hopeful, perhaps, that one day he would do the right thing, but his space in her life was slowly but surely being filled with something else. Something better.

She knew that she knew people.

She knew that Marlene tried to hide who she was under layers of being exactly what she wasn’t. She knew that Mary was afraid of the world around her and hid it by being who everyone wanted her to be. She knew that Dorcas thought often of never being enough and made up for it by giving every single person all of her until it broke her a little bit. She knew what the scars that Remus tried to hide meant (although, for his sake, she pretended not to). She knew that Sirius took astronomy because even though he, _too_ , said he hated his family he needed something to keep him afloat. She knew that Peter resented the way others forgot him, but never said anything because he was tired of being a burden. And she thought she knew James too.

She knew now that she never did.

The realization came as a startling revelation.

One day she was sitting in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, as she had done for the last seven years of her life, and she was observing, as she had also done for the last seven years of her life. He was sitting there alone, after spending three hours with the Remus, Sirius, and Peter, being the center of attention. As always.

However, once they were gone, he sat there for a minute, almost like he had forgotten where he was. He took a deep breath and pulled out a stack of papers; the schedule for the rest of the term that she had given him to look over. And then he continued to stare.

She wasn’t sure if this was a new development of his maturity or a new development of her ceasing to hate him and paying more attention, but over the last month and a half, she could see him quietly agonizing—and this was a vast feat in itself, as he was almost allergic to being quiet— almost every time being Head Boy was bought up. She knew he thought he didn’t deserve it, and that it should’ve been Frank or maybe Remus, or maybe someone else altogether.

She wondered too, why James Potter, prankster extraordinaire, was put in charge of people, and given a position with this much power. And then as she continued to stare, she realized.

James Potter was glue.

It shouldn’t have been shocking, and yet, she was almost angry at herself for not seeing it before. James Potter was glue, and she knew that this was the moment she finally knew him. James Potter was loud, and annoying, and thought the world revolved around him, and amongst it all, he was glue. He held people together.

He found three boys with different kinds of damage and held them together, so tight, that the cracks were only ever visible to them. He found Remus and gave him people who loved him so much, that his scars were the last thing that ever mattered. He found Sirius and gave him a home, so not only was he afloat, but he was able to breathe freely. He gave Peter friends that were so loud, so unforgettable, that when the world echoed their name, he would never be left behind. James Potter was glue.

He was captain of a quidditch team, and she knew that he wasn’t stupid enough to think quidditch mattered in the middle of a war, and yet he kept them practicing. Kept them working so hard, that they complained about him every other day. He saw something the rest of them would perhaps only realize years later; that this was giving them something else to hate. Something else to complain about. Something else to win. Something else, that was not the war. And again, James Potter held them together.

At the core of who he was, James Potter was loyal, and once he decided who you were to him, he stuck to you, whether you wanted him to or not. He was Head Boy because his loyalty ran deep. To his friends, to his house, to the people in his school. Lily was slowly realizing that Dumbledore made him Head Boy because James Potter would hold this entire school together if they needed him to.

The more she kept staring, the more she was realizing that James Potter was something else entirely. She hated that she thought she knew him before. Perhaps one day, she would find the courage to tell him that him being Head Boy was not a mistake and that she was sorry she ever thought she knew him. That day wasn’t today.

“Tired, Potter?”

He looked up at her and grinned, his hand automatically going to his hair, as always.


End file.
